OMAHA, N.E.(KELO)- South Dakota’s unemployment rate is low…but the manufacturing economy is showing signs of struggle.

In fact, the state’s manufacturing sector turned in one of the weakest performances in the nine state region covered by Creighton University’s monthly Business Conditions Index.

Economist, Dr. Ernie Goss says manufacturing jobs are being hit hard.

Goss says South Dakota has lost 16-hundred jobs so far this year.

New jobs in other sectors have kept the state’s unemployment rate low, but he says many of those jobs are part-time.